My thoughts on the Vampire Tarot by Robert Place

Le Fanu said:

I don't think there is one. Everyone makes mention of the huge borders.

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I didn't think there was a borderless deck, either, until I saw that photo on the box. It just makes me wonder why they would show the cards with no white border on the faces and a much thinner black border on the backs. It seems like a strange thing to do. It's almost like the publisher is ashamed of the thick borders.

And yes, this is one very impressive deck.

Le Fanu said:

As he explains in the book it isn't really about stakes and blood and coffins and all the rest (although these things appear in some of the cards), it is the more metaphorical side of the vampire myth; transformation, sexuality, delusions, imagination, unconscious fears, rebirth, Jungian theories of the passions. The theme "vampire" is a vehicle for tarot just as alchemy was in the Alchemical, and the two themes are - as he points out - not far removed. It is a very clever take on vampirism seen through the lense of the Arcana, Fools journey and the suits, with convincing parallels drawn.

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Ah-ha.. OK.. now you see.. this makes me feel a whole lot better about it.

I think more than just the vampire theme... I'd gotten hung up on the emphasis on Stoker - some reviews I've read indicated this was very strong - (and when I saw Jonathon was the Fool) that's been my stumbling block with this deck.

Thanks Le Fanu now I'm intrigued again.

irisa

Yes, we must think of it as a LITERATURE theme deck, not a VAMPIRE theme deck! Then all is well!

I am intrigued by the courts and the multi-layered connections between literature, tarot, theater, etc.

A tangental side-note: I picked up from the bargain shelf at Borders an edition of Romeo and Juliet that has a CD in the back of performances of various scenes, with each scene performed two or more times by different actors in difference styles.

A wonderful surprise--the CD includes a recording of Ellen Terry (our own Queen of Knives!) performing Juliet's soliliquy before she takes the sleeping liquid! Ms. Terry was in her 60s when the recording was made (in 1911), but it is a powerful performance! A bit more dramatic/stylized than we're used to, but very effective! And I'm sure by that time, she had performed Juliet hundreds or even thousands of times.

I am just fascinated to hear the actual voice of someone so closely connected to Pixie and Bram! Too cool!

ETA: The book is The Sourcebooks Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Dominique Raccah and Marie Macaisa, Series Editors

Another titbit for getting nearer the characters in the Vampire tarot...

If my memory serves me well, Mr Irving (King of the Holy Water) is the gentleman used by baba-studios for the Hierophant in the Bohemian Gothic. I seem to remember I read this in the book and remember the Stoker connection.

Yes, this deck is not so much "vampires" as the whole Romantic movement. There are characters here who are not vampires (Im thinking of the Courts!) but were instrumental in creating the taste for Romantic/ gothic/ the undead in literature.

I was reading about the courts last night. Im familiar with a lot of the characters from my readings of English Lit, but maybe not to the extent of being able to get an all-rounded grasp of what they mean in a Minor Arcana/ reading context. I found the descriptions of them in the book a bit insubstantial in some cases. As if they needed padding out a bit more. Unless we research the people in question and take what is known about them as a starting point for meanings. Maybe that's the idea.

I'm partial to it because of my love of old vampire movies. Some of the illustrations in this deck are inspired by film stills of two Todd Browning, Bela Lugosi films; "Dracula" and "Mark of the Vampire."

There is so much more to this deck than at first meets the eye. Love it.

Soothsayer said:

There is so much more to this deck than at first meets the eye.

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Could you elaborate this, please?
I love Place's art, but VAMPIRES......!!!???!

Several of us have gushed about it on the other thread

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=120054&highlight=Vampire+tarot

Vampires have symbolized different things to different peoples. The folk legends of Eastern Europe and Greece describe disgusting, rather pathetic creatures who won't stay dead but come back to torment their relatives, suggesting a fear of death and maybe survivor's guilt.

Romantic literature took up the theme and used it to describe unhealthy or extreme passions and appetites, sometimes making their vampires beautiful and sympathetic beings. Stoker and other Victorian-era writers also used the vampire to express some of their ambivalence and anxieties about sex and power.

Today, the vampire seems to reflect our culture's fears of aging, of losing beauty and strength, and also to describe the modern world's increasing sense of isolation and loss of community.

It's a fascinating subject, and the Place deck beautifully portrays the various fears and emotions vampires have embodied for us, in the dark places of our imaginations.

Just bought the deck today: first impressions? Stunning. I think the kit is beautifully put together and is gushes with quality. I love the feel of the cards: the glossiness is very satisfying. So too was cracking the cards apart.

The cards themselves and big and shiny and gorgeous: there's a very satisfying tactility to them. I could just handle them all day!

As to reading them... this is definitely a deck to study. I bought the deck because I wanted to read the accompanying book as much as the cards; a quick glimpse assures me this is one to settle down with. The courts are fascinating; seeing real-life people assigned to each card caught my interest, especially when one of them is good old S.T Coleridge. He's a guy I enjoyed studying back in the day; he had an interesting life and some interesting points of view and I can't wait to see how it links in with a tarot court. Lots of research and reading to do with this deck.

That being the case, it's currently safely on the shelf. I'm knee-deep in fairytales at the moment, and quite happy about it; when I'm in need of a seachange, I'll be returning to the Vamps.

Well, maybe I'll return once or twice before, just to lift the lid and have a quick peek...

I'd like to point out that the glossiness isn't like US Games lamination, the cards are thin and to me feel like the Kodak paper we would use to print pictures from on our home computers. except shiny on both sides. I haven't tried to shuffle them because I'm not sure I'll keep the set yet. I need to reread Stoker.